Ministry of Education Approves 5 Centres of Excellence to Promote Classical Languages Through AI
The Ministry of Education has approved the setting up of five new Centres of Excellence (CoEs) for research on Classical Languages, an important milestone in the process of preserving and reviving India’s rich linguistic and literary tradition. The five centres that will be set up will include study of Classical Assamese, Classical Bengali, Classical Marathi, Classical Pali and Classical Prakrit. This approval has been done through the Office Memorandum dated October 1, 2026, and the ministry has made the announcement on October 3.
This project is intended to help in enhancing advanced research and documentation, preservation and digitization and disseminating knowledge related to these languages. Though the announcement made by the ministry does not particularly talk about any AI programme but focuses mainly on research and digitization, the emphasis on the digitization of the knowledge leaves open many areas where AI can be utilized.
Which Five Centres of Excellence Have Been Approved?
These five Centres of Excellence will be located in five states, each of which will house an institution of higher education. While Classical Assamese will be housed at Tezpur University of Assam, Classical Bengali will have its Centre at Visva-Bharati University of West Bengal. The Centre of Classical Marathi will be located at the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, located in Pune, Maharashtra. Classical Pali will find its home at the Central University of Odisha, whereas Classical Prakrit will have its Centre at the Central University of Gujarat.
In total, all these Centres will enhance the academic ecosystem in their regions and provide a platform for researchers studying Indian classical languages.
Why Are These Five Languages Getting Centres Now?
The five languages which have received Classical Language status recently through this initiative – Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit – have received Classical Language status in October 2024.
There are currently 11 Classical Languages that have been declared by the Government of India, such as Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit. There have been Centres of Excellence that have been funded by the Ministry of Education for Classical Kannada, Telugu, Odia and Malayalam, whereas the Central Institute of Classical Tamil works specifically in the area of Classical Tamil.
The five newly created centres thus add to the institutional setup for India’s classical language ecology.
How Will the Centres Help Preserve Classical Languages?
One of the main goals of the program is to ensure that knowledge about classical languages does not become restricted to old manuscripts, specialized libraries, and scholars alone. According to the Ministry of Education, the centers will provide for the research, preservation and digitization of linguistic and literary sources, as well as the dissemination of the knowledge that comes from these languages.
Digitization is crucial since classical texts are written in manuscripts and archival materials that need to be preserved systematically. Digitizing these sources makes it easier for scholars and students to access these documents without having to rely on physical material.
Where Does AI Come Into the Picture?
There is no mention in the official statement of the Ministry of Education that these five centres have been designated AI Centres of Excellence. The only confirmed area of work for these five centres is that of research, preservation, digitization and dissemination.
However, the role of digitization naturally provides an excellent opportunity for using AI in terms of preservation and research. After texts have been digitized, AI and linguistics could be used by researchers to help them organize the texts, find patterns in them, make searching easier, assist in transcribing texts and translating between classical and contemporary languages.
AI could make these texts easier to access to people who do not have expertise in reading the old script and understanding classical texts.
Why Digitisation Could Change Classical Language Research
Digitisation has the potential to revolutionise the methodology of classical language research. Instead of the traditional way of seeking out individual manuscripts and collections, the process of digitisation can ensure that large amounts of literature are available in a searchable form through the use of properly digitised archives.
This would be particularly useful in the case of languages with an extensive historical and literary tradition as it would allow scholars to engage in comparisons between texts, trace the evolution of a language and find commonalities across different regions and different times.
Thus, the Ministry’s interest in digitisation goes well beyond mere preservation as it allows the process of classical language research to become digitised, allowing younger researchers to access the rich linguistic legacy of India.
What Will the Centres Focus On?
The Centres of Excellence will be dedicated to academic research in these languages. The scope of their activities is expected to include research, documentation, preservation and digitisation along with the dissemination of knowledge about language and literature.
At the same time, these centres have been established in five different states of India – Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Odisha and Gujarat. Thus, the programme has an important regional component as well.
What Does This Mean for Students and Researchers?
New centers will open up new chances for specialized studies and seminars on classical languages. Researchers will gain an advantage of improved institutional support along with digitized linguistic and literary sources.
The centers can act as a bridge between classical language studies and modern sciences where the literature written in classical languages overlaps with history, literature, philosophy, linguistics, culture and technology.
In the long run, digitized sources will make the classical languages more available outside traditional academic institutions.
Why This Matters for India’s Linguistic Heritage
The linguistic legacy of India goes back through thousands of years of literature, philosophy, religion, science, politics and culture exchanges. Thus, the preservation of this legacy is not merely about safeguarding languages of the past, but preserving the knowledge that can be found in them.
Previously, the government referred to its efforts concerning the revitalization of classical languages in the context of promoting multilingualism and improving the Indian language education and research. The new five Centres of Excellence further expand this approach by providing the recently classified classical languages with institutional backing.
Conclusion
Approval of five Centres of Excellence in respect of Classical Languages by the Ministry of Education is a step towards increasing the number of institutions that support classical languages of India. These centers for Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit languages will concentrate on research, preservation, digitization and wider dissemination of linguistic and literary legacy.
Though the official statement does not state the initiative as an AI-based program, the emphasis on digitization leaves the way open for such work in the future.
The overall purpose of the initiative is quite obvious – to preserve and increase the accessibility of India’s classical linguistic tradition.
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